Announcing a $50 million Series D financing to usher in a new era of live events

We’ve come a long way since 2008. It seems like just yesterday my co-founder Dan and I were going to investors, hat in hand, seeking backing for our new company, Ticketfly. It was late 2008, the start of the Great Recession, and a rather inauspicious time for fundraising, but we figured with our history and track record it would be a no-brainer. It wasn’t. I remember one day we were presenting at the office of a now defunct VC when the stock market plummeted 777 points. The investors looked at us mid-pitch and said, “This meeting is over.” That meeting was over, but in the end we got it done and we were off on our journey.

What a stark dichotomy from today: I am pleased to announce that we have closed our $50M Series D financing. Jeff Parks at Riverwood Capital led the round and, man, are we lucky to be in business with these guys. Riverwood is probably most well known for its prescient bet on GoPro, and has invested in a bunch of other great companies, including Nutanix and Globant, as well. These folks will be instrumental to our success as we continue to grow the business and build a live events software platform that makes live events better for both the promoters who present the events and the fans who enjoy them.

Ticketfly is not a ticketing company. We have built the first and only integrated software platform of its kind—one that powers the entire event lifecycle and does much more than just ticketing. We have been developing technologies to set promoters up for success before their first ticket ever goes on sale and long after the fans arrive, such as mobile-friendly tools to streamline the artist booking process and a unified data layer that combines ticketing and in-venue commerce data. We’re making life better for fans by simplifying the mobile purchase experience, serving up curated picks from great venues across North America, and working on in-venue technology that wrings the friction out of the process of buying concessions and merchandise at the events. Following this financing we plan to double down on the software we have been developing for our existing clients—and fans—while also taking to a larger stage the platform our early adopter clients have had access to for many years.

In seven short years, we’ve gone from an idea to a billion dollars in cumulative gross sales. We have become the go-to choice for independent venues and promoters across North America. Fast Company recently named us one of the “Most Innovative Companies in Music”—for the second time. We power more of Pollstar’s top 200 independent clubs in the U.S. and Canada than any other provider, and we continue expanding our partner list through acquisitions and notable new signings. In March, we acquired Northern Tickets and every quarter we add over 100 great new partners, such as Life is Beautiful festival and Central Park SummerStage, to our roster.

There is a tectonic shift happening in the live events space driven by fundamental changes in technology, including social and mobile. A revolution of sorts is taking shape driven by deep dissatisfaction with the incumbents and a sea change in the way people discover new artists and events, thanks to services like Spotify and Pandora. Technology has forever changed how we listen to music, but it has only scratched the surface when it comes to how we experience live events. I can tell you—on the heels of this financing—that is about to change.